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looking for ways to include as
much of the habitat as possible
and, ideally, in a not-so-obvious
way. These two images both
show oxpeckers in their natural
habitat and you could argue
whether the oxpeckers are
actually the main subject – after
all, they are much smaller than
the other subjects.
The image with the Cape
buffalo started as a buffalo
image when I stumbled across it
in the Okavango Delta in
Botswana. It was covered in
drying mud and I was
captivated by the
monochromatic feel and by the
wonderful texture. I started
shooting relatively wide, then
kept framing it tighter and
tighter until I only had the
head inside the frame. It was
pretty cool, but something was
missing. I started thinking
about alternatives and then
noticed the oxpeckers hopping
from buffalo to buffalo. That’s
when I previsualised an image
where the buffalo would not be
the main subject, but a
monochromatic background
for the bird.
When analysing my frame
I realised that, in order to
eliminate distracting highlights
and really use the buffalo as a
‘wallpaper’, I needed to go even
tighter and get rid of everything
that wasn’t a buffalo. That gave
me a very nice frame in which
the buffalo’s horn was the
perfect perch for an oxpecker.
From then on, it was just a
matter of patience and waiting
for it to materialise. When it
did, I shot many images to
capture the different poses of
the bird. In one of the frames
the eyes of the buffalo wereclosed, and that turned out to
be perfect. Our eyes are always
drawn to other eyes, so when
there are eyes in your photo
people can’t resist looking at
them. In this case I thought
that would just be a distraction.
These buffalo are always
followed by oxpeckers, who are
after the ticks on the buffalo so
usually are around. But also
there’s usually quite a few
buffalo, so they might not
always be on the buffalo that
you’re photographing. The
name ‘oxpecker’ already implies
that it’s not rare to see one on a
buffalo. But you have to try to
come up with an idea of how
you’re going to photograph
this. For example, am I going to
leave enough space so that I can
see background, that I see trees
or sky in the background, or am
I going to go close? And, if I goclose, how close and where do
I want the bird? For me, this
was just the perfect spot in the
image for the bird to be.
The other image could be
about the oxpeckers or it could
be about the giraffe. I like to
think it’s about the oxpeckers
and the giraffe is just a massive
perch. It was shot at sunrise.
Usually, in Africa, the sunrises
can be very colourful but the
colour doesn’t last long. In the
afternoons you get a bit more
colour because by that time it’s
much warmer, there’s more haze
and more dust in the air. Again,
the oxpeckers are resting on this
giraffe to check constantly for
ticks. The moment I have two
images next to each other that
both feature oxpeckers then,
suddenly, the oxpeckers
become the subject.
As told to Steve Fairclough